The ‘winner’ of last Sunday’s Standard Chartered Marathon admitted to cheating by taking shortcuts in the race. In total, he only ran about 6kms of the 42km race.
43 yr old Tam Chua Puh, a pastry chef, had said that he had not intended to win the Singapore men’s division and that he just wanted to get the shirt and medal for completing the marathon.
When Tam had crossed the finish line, there was confusion as no one had expected an unknown 43 yr old man to beat the SEA Games marathoner Mok Ying Ren.
His time to finish the race was recorded at 2hrs 46min and 57sec which would have made him the fastest in the Singapore men’s division. He came in 7 minutes in front of Mok Ying Ren.
After some investigation, Tam was discovered to have cheated and he was disqualified. Subsequently, Mok Ying Ren was rightly named the winner of the Singapore men’s division.
‘Ethiopia Is to Marathon What Brazil Is to Football’
Ethiopia is to marathon what Brazil is to football, said the Ethiopian country coordinator Aberu Zewede as the athletes from the African nation ran away with all the top places at the 28th Pune International Marathon on Sunday.
Citing the country’s topography as the main reason behind producing top-class long distance runners, he said: “Our runners are gifted. It’s something like Brazilians when it comes to football.”
“Running becomes natural for an Ethiopian because of the high altitudes.
“On an average we live on 3,000 metres altitudes. We have some ranges at a peak of well over 4000m,” Zewede said giving example of MountBatu that sits at a peak of 4307m.
“The boys and girls automatically develop high stamina and endurance. We are proud to be a country of marathoners,” he said basking in the glory of the Ethiopian contingent that returned with three gold, one silver and three bronze medals from three events.
Belachew Endale Abayneh clinched the 28th Pune International Marathon title for his maiden crown while Habtamu Arga and Aberu Zewude Tesema won the men’s and women’s half marathon titles respectively, making it three gold medals out of three.
Addis Ethiopia Weblog 